When a picture of a 91-year-old man in a Halloween costume went viral this week, I was asked if other senior citizens dressed up in Halloween costumes. Of course they do, and why are you asking me, anyway? Because I'll look those folks up and put their pictures on mental_floss, that's why!

Oh no, not a Star Wars/Gangnam Style parody! That's what it is -for about a minute, then it turns into a statement about …well, you just watch this while I go curl up in a corner somewhere and contemplate my life and unfulfilled dreams. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

The Dibbuk Box is a wine cabinet containing some personal items and a Jewish prayer carved on the back. It had belonged to a Holocaust survivor, now deceased, and everyone who came into contact with the box experienced strange dreams, bad luck, and illness.

An edit of 2001: A Space Odyssey leaving only the lines of the HAL 9000 computer is totally creepy. It goes from confident to competent to crazy using the same monotone throughout.

Trick or treaters, you know you're going to end up with candy you like and candy you don't like, as well as candy that no one likes. The best thing to do is to trade with your brothers and sisters, but you need some tips from Ze Frank on the most beneficial way to do it. Note: this may be confusing for those who do not live in the US, as candy names vary by country. (via Metafilter)

Vi Hart is not only great at explaining mathematics and making it fun, she can also cook and poke fun at herself. In this video, she uses her previously-explained hexaflexagons to make a tasty tortilla treat! (via Viral Viral Videos)

Another Halloween movie? That's great, because this time, Mike Myers is playing the role of Michael Myers! Schwing! Groovy, baby! It had to happen sooner or later (I thought it was happening when I heard Mike Myers was doing a movie called So I Married an Axe Murderer) and Screen Junkies made it happen.

Electronic magic brings us the weirdest halloween costume ever! Phil Burgess of Adafruit mounted LED matrices on a mask, and hooked up a voice changer to use as a stimulus for the animation. The tutorials on the various parts of the project are available at Adafruit. (Thanks, Becky!)

Legendary monsters “exist,” if only in legend, all over the world. The series of monsters continues with a look at a few strange stories from North America. It's the latest episode of a continuing series of legendary monster lists I've been posting at mental_floss.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a documentary on bids. That sounds pretty dry, but give it a chance and enjoy some truly astonishing nature photography and fascinating birds. The documentary will air on the National Geographic channel on November 22nd. (via Metafilter)

You probably won't be able to recreate these eyeballs just by watching the video, because the products shown won't be familiar outside Japan, and they glossed over the all-important part of creating the pupil and iris. From what I can tell, it's a gelatin recipe with raspberries inside. You'll get a kick out of how they are used! (via Everlasting Blort)

A Twilight fan wrapped up in the sparkly world of supernatural romance confronts the horrific reality of the vampires world -as it is supposed to be. This short film by Al Lougher was produced for Stage 5 TV. (Thanks, Mark!)

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The OSU marching band tries to top their video game routine with a halftime show featuring dancing aliens, UFOs, time travel, and a dig at Michigan. Any show that starts with "O Fortuna" will catch my attention! (via The Daily What)

Oh, this is absolutely charming! A young stingray in an aquarium at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon, puts on a performance of his dancing skills. Music by Kevin McLeod. (via Arbroath)

German comedian Flula Borg explains why one American political party is better than the other one. He says he asked people about Republicans and Democrats, and then put their answers into his explanations. He made two videos, so pick your poison. (via Daily of the Day)

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The music video for "Time To Go" by Wax Tailor feat Aloe Blacc stars a crocheted "quadropus" swimming through the urban landscape as if it were the deep blue sea. The video was produced by Oh Yeah Wow. (via The Daily What)

What happens when a cat becomes YouTube famous. Which is what might have been, if producer TomSka had a camera ready that one day a cat walked in while he was playing a video game. (via a comment at Metafilter)

Barring fictional characters, a slave named Tituba is America’s most famous “witch.” She was there at Ground Zero in the case of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. But because she was a slave, her documented biography is sparse compared to other accused witches of Salem. Read about Tituba in an article I wrote for mental_floss.

YouTube cat mixer ignoramusky offers a compilation of cats whose reach exceeds their grasp. The use of the tune "Ride of the Valkyries" makes this compilation all the more effective. The very last kitten is the best, even though (or maybe because) the clip falls short of "fail." (via The Daily What)

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Patrick Quinn and Tom Riles produced this video, in which a bunch of dads sing "Part of Your World." It was made for the site Life of Dad. Quinn has daughters, which means he's seen The Little Mermaid on home video more than he cares to admit.

Quinn, who is married to Riles's oldest sister, actually came up with the idea while on a bike ride: "Besides all of my music, I have princess songs and kids' stuff on my iPod for when we are on long car rides." He found that he would often re-listen to the Disney songs for his kids. "Once you have a daughter, no matter how tough, thuggish, or introverted you might be, you're going to play princess with reckless abandon in front of others knowing that if anyone sees you they're going to understand. Especially if that someone is another dad."

Riles gives credit to his sisters. "My sisters all loved 'The Little Mermaid' growing up, and I must say, the Disney films of that generation were the best." Most of the men in the video have kids, and those who don't have nieces who "made sure they knew all the lyrics."

Halloween is right around the corner. Are you planning to scare up some deliciously fun Halloween goodies for your family. Make a cake that is just to die for with the 3-D Skull Cake Pan from the NeatoShop. This spooktacular pan features 2 cavities for baking the front and back of the skull. The unearthly possibilities of this pan are only limited by your imagination.

Or, conversely, how to tell if someone you are speaking to is Dutch. Dutch physicist and mathematician Christiaan Huygens contributed a lot to the science of physics, including the idea that light travels in waves. That was over 300 years ago. MIT physics professor Walter Lewin is Dutch, so he can pronounce Huygens correctly. (via the Presurfer)

Luc Bergeron, who goes by the name Zapatou, stitched together your favorite virtual videos old and new to interweave with the song "What Can't You Do?" by David Meshow. It's like a little tour through the past few years of watching videos on the internet. (via The Daily What)

The Discovery Channel is promoting the new season of Mythbusters with a super cut of their best crashes, explosions, and general destruction of things. After all, that's the reason we watch the show, isn't it? (via The Daily What Geek)

Are you looking for a Halloween costume that will take you all the way through Christmas and probably Easter? You need the A Christmas Story Bunny Suit from the NeatoShop. This fantastic, and perhaps slightly deranged, bunny suit will make you want to sing, "fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra."

From the marvelous webcomic Pusheen. I'll skip all these because my cats are already dressed for Halloween. One is a black witch cat, one is a white ghost cat, and one is big and round and orange, like a pumpkin.

Rev. Dr. Phil Snyder addressed a Springfield, Missouri, city council meeting on a proposed regulation adding LGBT people to a list of minorities protected from discrimination. You'll need to sit through the entire 3 minutes he's allotted, because things start happening that you don't expect. In another video, you can checkout what other people said at the meeting. (via Metafilter)

A six-foot-tall fork appeared in Carlsbad, California, at the intersection of Levante Street and Anillo Way on Tuesday. The unnamed artist is a 62-year-old retired teacher who said he was impressed by the joke in The Muppet Movie in which Kermit and Fozzie encounter a giant silverware fork when they are looking for a fork in the road. Carlsbad residents got a kick out of the sculpture, but a city crew removed it on Wednesday. You might say they got the fork out of there. Another resident erected a sign in its places that say "Why the fork not?" which the city also removed. Then residents then began taping real, normal-sized forks to a nearby sign. A spokesperson for the city said the sculpture is a code violation. (via Fark)

Do you have an eye for fashion? You need the eye catching Eyeball Women's Socks from the NeatoShop. This visually appealing pair of ankle socks features a striking eyeball design. People won't be able to take their eyes off them.

Since June, Maricopa County in Arizona has been distributing information
that lists the correct date of election day in English, but November 8th in the Spanish version. It's a very old campaign trick, but officials are calling it a mistake.